Haggling Continues on Bolton Vote, Now Planned for Monday

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: June 17, 2005

With his nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations hanging in the balance, John R. Bolton made a hurried trip to Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon to meet with two of his chief Democratic critics.

The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, delayed a vote on the Bolton nomination until Monday.

''Constructive discussions have continued over the course of yesterday and over the course of today,'' Dr. Frist said, ''and that being the case, we have elected to have that vote Monday evening.''

But it was not clear whether the impasse, which stems from the Bush administration's refusal to provide Democrats with information they requested relating to Mr. Bolton's tenure at the State Department, would be resolved.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Bolton met with the two Democratic critics, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, according to a statement from Mr. Dodd's spokeswoman, Stacie Paxton.

''Senator Dodd's message to Mr. Bolton was plain and simple,'' the statement said. ''Mr. Bolton needs to convince Vice President Cheney to provide the information that he and Senator Biden have requested on numerous occasions.''

Last month, Republicans fell four votes short of the 60 required to break a Democratic filibuster over the nomination of Mr. Bolton, whose aggressive management style and frequent clashes with intelligence officials have drawn criticism.

Though there are several sticking points, a central issue is a request by Mr. Bolton, while he was under secretary of state for arms control, to review the names of Americans mentioned in communications intercepted by the National Security Agency and identified in highly classified intelligence reports.

Democrats have drawn up a list of 36 ''names of concern'' and would like the White House to compare their list with the names Mr. Bolton reviewed. The White House has refused, but has responded to queries made by one Republican, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, who asked for information about six officials with whom Mr. Bolton had clashed.

Mr. Roberts said Wednesday that he had been told that none of those officials had been among the names reviewed by Mr. Bolton.

But Mr. Dodd, in a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, said he was not satisfied. If the administration can quickly cross-check the names offered by Mr. Roberts, Mr. Dodd asked, ''why is it a problem to cross-check'' the others?